News

In 2024-2025 councils in England faced £325 million funding shortfall, whilst 1/3 young people were turned away for homelessness support.

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re looking back on a year of campaigning that has been nothing short of remarkable. And we couldn’t have done it without you – our incredible community of campaigners and loyal supporters.

Centrepoint has been campaigning to Make Work Pay and end the benefit trap for young people in supported housing. For the last year we have been calling on the Chancellor to fix a cruel quirk in the system that can leave young people worse off when entering work. It’s an injustice affecting thousands of young people, and one we’ve been determined to see fixed.

Eurydice Belezika, Peer Research Coordinator and former Centrepoint resident in London, talks about her experience of conducting research and campaigning to support disadvantaged young people.

As our former engagement team begin to reintroduce events and outings that aim to inspire and empower as the HOMES Activities Team, we caught up with them after a residential outing to Staffordshire, which brought together homeless young people from services all over the country for some daring outdoor activities. Here, the team tell us what these trips mean to young people, and just how it helps them prepare for independence.

Centrepoint’s goal is to help vulnerable young people become independent enough to live a good life that they can thrive in. And we are open to all homeless young people, regardless of their geographical circumstances. Whether they’ve been kicked out of their family home in London or have travelled to the UK as an unaccompanied minor, we’re here to help.

Our legal team recently experienced a bittersweet victory: through years of hard work they managed to reclaim a huge backlog of benefits payments owed to a young person using Centrepoint’s services. A huge and monumental success, yes -but it certainly wasn’t an easy win.

Our legal team make up a vital part of the service we offer young people at Centrepoint. For those seeking legal support, it can be incredibly difficult to attain without financial aid, and so many often go without. Centrepoint is here to help change that. Nabila, a legal administrator coming to the end of a secondment with the Legal Team, tells us about what she has learnt during her time with the department and the important service they provide.

Sunday 10 October 2021 marks the 11th World Homeless Day, originally established to recognise those working to end homelessness across the world. Since its inception in 2010, the day has represented the need to raise awareness of homelessness, support those who experience it, and fight for their futures.

Financial benefits, housing support and access to government employment programmes are all key to helping homeless people gain their independence. However, for the homeless, benefits – and the process of claiming them – can sometimes seem confusing. That’s why we’re here to help with our handy guide to your entitlement.

For so many young people who come through our doors, Centrepoint's Bursary provides a crucial lifeline for continuing their education and starting a career - both of which are key steps to independence. But did you know that we actually have three different kinds of Bursary, and that it's actually one of the last steps in helping young people to move on from homelessness? Find out more about our life-changing Bursaries here.

In July 2020, we put together a mission statement of how we planned to support Black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) staff within Centrepoint. We promised to hold ourselves accountable, to look at our processes, and to speak to those at the heart of the matter: our staff. A lot of our work on being anti-racist begins on the inside, at the core. And so, we wanted to share an update on our progress with you, our supporters, to let you know we’re still striving towards our mission. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

Senior Case Studies Officer, Tamsin Clements, talks to the Centrepoint Works team to explore how our in-house learning and employment offer can support young people who may have fallen through the cracks in the education system.

Men’s Health Week aims to improve the lives of men and boys, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This year, as we emerge from the biggest health crisis of the 21st century, the question is: where do we go from here?

Centrepoint’s new report, A Year Like No Other, has reflected on the impact of the last year on vulnerable young people, looking at youth unemployment, homelessness, poverty and mental health, and assessing the impact of the government’s policy interventions during the pandemic. Here, Deputy Service Manager Emily Cretch talks us through the research, and reflects on how the past year has been for her and her team.